One of my neighbors recently experienced ransomware first hand. Up until then, he had no idea it existed. Because of that, it seems important to revisit extortion malware, explain exactly what it is, and how to avoid it.
Ransomware made its debut with a trojan called PC Cyborg, the brainchild of Dr. Joseph Popp. The extortion begins with a vulnerable computer becoming infected. Once settled in, the malware hides all folders and encrypts file names on the C: drive. Next, a dialog box opens, proclaiming the victim needs to send PC Cyborg Corporation $189 US, because the license had expired.
Until ransom money is received and the malware’s activities are reversed, the victim has a non-working computer. Thankfully, the doctor’s trojan had a weakness. It encrypted the file names using symmetric cryptography. Once experts had a chance to analyze the malcode and encrypted tables, it became simple to reverse and determine who created the ransomware.
It seems the doctor felt he was doing something worthwhile (eventually declared mentally unfit). At his trial, he mentioned that the ransom money was to be used for AIDS research.
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=2976&tag=nl.e036Scary stuff, I wonder if there is an increase in this because of the economy.
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